CHAPTER 57: VISITING SERALYTH

"Are you okay?" Evelyn asked, her voice low as her eyes lingered on the queen.

Elunara exhaled, long and heavy, then raised a hand to her face as if to hide whatever expression had slipped through. "...Yeah. I apologize."

Her tone was steady, but her eyes shifted back to Emma.

The girl still had her head bent over the book, fingers flipping pages in quick succession. It wasn’t normal reading.

Elunara knew the rhythm of study, the pauses when a mind wrestled with meaning, the quiet hesitations when a word forced you to stop and rethink.

Emma had none of that. Her movements were almost mechanical. Turn. Scan. Turn again.

It reminded Elunara of her own struggles—long hours wasted staring at the same passages, re-reading lines until frustration settled like poison in her chest.

She remembered when dark magic had first been explained to her, how natural it had sounded, but how merciless it had been in practice.

She’d spent an entire day once, maybe longer, finishing a book and closing it with nothing but irritation gnawing at her. Emma, in contrast, was breezing through it as if the complexity meant nothing.

That alone was enough to make her jaw tighten.

"I’m fine now," she said at last, lowering her hand and steadying herself. "You can relax. Focus on the book I gave you. When you’re done, there will be others waiting. So go on. Continue."

Evelyn held her gaze for a moment, almost doubting, but eventually lowered her eyes and returned to her own text.

She didn’t entirely believe the queen was fine, but on the surface, Elunara seemed composed. That was enough.

Elunara took her cup, sipped the tea, and forced her thoughts to settle. The warmth helped, though only a little.

Minutes trickled by.

Ten of them.

The queen’s eyes never truly left Emma, even as she pretended to busy herself with the taste of her drink. The girl was nearing the end—two pages left, then one.

Elunara couldn’t decide what she felt. Irritation, disbelief, something like an insult. If Emma thought she could understand dark magic this way, she was lying to herself.

Finally, Emma let the cover fall shut with a quiet thump. She looked up, face calm, and said in her usual blunt tone, "I’m finished."

Elunara’s gaze snapped to the book, then back to Emma. Her voice dropped, sharper than before. "You are wasting your time with methods like that. Dark magic is not something you can skim. Especially not for someone aligned with light. It demands focus."

Emma blinked at her, confusion in her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"You shouldn’t be cramming a book like that."

Emma tilted her head slightly, expression still calm. "What’s that supposed to mean? I read it properly. I didn’t cram anything."

The queen stared at her, unable to read whether she was being arrogant or genuinely unaware. "Are you serious?"

"Yes," Emma answered simply, no hesitation, though the frown on her face showed she didn’t understand why this was even a debate.

"You’re telling me," Elunara pressed, "that you read the entire book?"

Emma nodded. "Yes."

For a moment, the queen just sighed, heavy enough that Evelyn looked up again. "...Fine. If you claim you read the whole thing, then you won’t mind a test."

Emma’s brow raised slightly. "A test? That I read the book?"

"Yes," Elunara said flatly.

Emma lowered her eyes to the closed cover, then back to the queen. "Okay."

Elunara leaned back, thinking, then fixed her eyes on her. "On page fifty-seven. Tell me what it says about dark magic. And not just the top. What’s written on the lower section?"

Evelyn looked between them, already sensing tension. Emma, however, just went quiet. She stayed like that for several seconds, her eyes narrowing slightly, as though sifting through memory.

Elunara opened her mouth, ready to dismiss her, when Emma spoke.

"It says that when light and dark clash, the dark side creates chaos. That chaos spreads into the world and drowns it in destruction. It also explains how even creatures already blessed with power were changed, given destructive traits. One of the examples it names is lightning. A force born from their collision."

She said it with calm certainty, her tone more like someone recalling facts than proving herself.

The garden went still.

Elunara froze. Her thoughts stopped mid-track. Shock carved into her expression so deeply that she didn’t notice Evelyn staring. She just stood there, locked in silence, her breath caught as if words refused to leave her.

Forty seconds passed that way.

Emma shifted uncomfortably under the weight of it. Her eyes flicked between Elunara and Evelyn, unsure if she’d said too much, or too little, or simply something wrong. The silence felt heavier than any reprimand.

She waited, but the queen still said nothing.

The silence dragged for forty seconds. Then Elunara finally spoke, her voice low.

"You... actually read the whole thing?"

Emma nodded without hesitation. "Yes."

Elunara studied her for a moment, then leaned back slightly. "...I see. Then I owe you an apology."

Emma tilted her head. "Why?"

"Because while you were reading, I thought you weren’t taking this seriously. I misjudged you in that moment."

Emma blinked, her tone light as she answered, "Oh? It’s not a big deal."

For the first time that morning, Elunara allowed herself a faint smile. Evelyn, peeking up from her own book, noticed the tension dissolving. She let out a small breath and quietly returned to her reading.

Elunara set her cup down and straightened her back. "Alright. Since you’ve finished and claim to understand, I’ll give you a short break. Use the time to process the material. Afterward, we’ll return to the lesson."

Emma nodded. "I understand." She fell quiet, as though debating what to do with her pause. Then, without warning, a name surfaced in her mind. Seralyth. Her face appeared as clear as if she’d been standing there.

Emma raised her eyes again. "Where is Seralyth right now?"

Elunara’s brow lifted. "You want to meet her?"

"Yes," Emma replied simply. "She might not be done with training Lucy, but it’s fine. I just want to see her, not the other."

The queen studied her expression. There was no hesitation, no hidden agenda in the tone—just direct intent. At length, she relented. "Very well. I’ll tell you." She gave Emma the location without protest.

Emma stood, thanked her, and left.

Evelyn followed her with her eyes until the door closed. A part of her wanted to call out, to ask her to stay. The quiet sense of separation pressed at her chest.

Elunara noticed. "Evelyn. It’s fine. She’ll be back in a few minutes, or hours at most. There’s no need to worry."

Evelyn nodded faintly, but her gaze lingered on the door.

Outside, Emma followed the winding corridors until she found one of the stationed guards.

"Where is Seralyth resting?" she asked, her voice calm but firm.

The guard hesitated. Normally, questions like that weren’t answered. But with Emma standing there, with the queen herself having likely given permission... punishment didn’t seem likely. He gave her the directions.

Emma walked without pause, following the path until she reached a door. She raised her hand and knocked.

"Come in," a voice called from inside.

Emma opened the door. And there she was—Seralyth. Reclining casually in the room, as though she owned the air around her.

"You. Angel-demon girl." Seralyth’s voice carried a hint of mockery. "What do you want?"

Emma’s eyes narrowed. "Don’t call me that. I just want to know something. What are you planning to do with Caelen?"

That caught Seralyth’s attention. Her expression shifted, amusement breaking into surprise. "...Didn’t I already tell you? He’s training."

Emma stepped further into the room, her voice sharpening. "Yeah. Training. But you said nothing about him being in some strange place and training in it."

Seralyth straightened from her lounging posture, eyes narrowing at the weight in Emma’s words. "...What are you talking about?"

"I know what you’re doing." Emma’s voice carried no doubt, only conviction. "If you keep pushing him like this, you’ll kill him. Get him out of there."

The queen of shadows didn’t answer right away. Instead, she turned her gaze to the low table beside her. A book rested there.

Slowly, she reached for it, flipping it open with a casual hand. Emma’s eyes followed the motion, realizing immediately that whatever was inside mattered.

Seralyth’s lips curved faintly as her eyes traced the page. Something caught her attention. Her hand reached for a slender pen-like tool, colored with faint swirls of blue and violet light.

She tapped it against the book, then raised it toward Emma.

The tool shimmered, projecting a glowing pane of text into the air.

[Personal Info]

Name: ???

Race: Demonic Angel

Age: ???

Affiliation: ???

Title: ???

Status: Unstable

Primordial Type: Demon and Angel

Affinity: Light and Water

-

Seralyth’s gaze sharpened as she fixed Emma with a cold, serious stare. Her voice dropped into steel.

"Never seen this before, maybe you have. Can you see this it? Then tell me—what the hell is this?"